Looking after passengers with a big dose of kawaii. 

Japanese trains are known around the world for being clean and on time, but that’s not all they’ve got going for them. Once you’re outside of the big cities and riding the rails on single-carriage trains in rural towns, Japanese trains take on a charm all of their own, becoming almost lifelike in character as they ferry passengers through picturesque locales, trundling along at a far more leisurely pace than their busy city cousins.

For one single-carriage train running on the Enshu Railway Line through Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture, everyday life isn’t just relaxed and laid-back, it’s idyllic too. In fact, it’s so idyllic it looks like it belongs in an anime film, with the staff operating it playing major roles as starring characters.

This video captures the moment the real world blurs with anime, as the train’s driver and conductor step out onto the platform and communicate with each other in a very unique and incredibly cute way.

▼ Keep your eyes peeled for the moment just before the train departs in the clip below.

The video shows the train pulling up at Komatsu Station, where a number of passengers disembark as the two members of staff on the train step out to ensure everyone’s safety.

It’s common for staff onboard trains to use hand signals when conducting safety checks at each stop on the line as they’ve been proven to reduce accidents. However, the gestures used by these two are on a whole other level, as they don’t just use their hands to communicate with each other, they use their bodies too.

Once they see the platform has cleared, both staff duck their heads back in the carriage for a final check to ensure nobody is making a mad dash for the doors. Then, to communicate that everything’s A-OK for departure, they bend their knees and dip their heads to the side in perfect unison.

▼ The train then takes off safely, gliding away from the platform to grace another station with its presence.

People around Japan have fallen in love with the sweet, silent communication between driver and conductor on the one-carriage train.

“They’re dancing!”
“I love how they go from friend mode to work mode so seamlessly!”
“Communication at unmanned stations like this is important but they make it look fun!”
“This is too adorable – it’s like they’re giving each other a sideways bow!”
“I want to go to Hamamatsu now so I can see this in real life!”

A lot of trainspotters are now keen to make the journey out to Hamamatsu to witness the spectacle for themselves. However, when videos like this go viral, it can cause a lot of train enthusiasts to gather in packs resembling media scrums on narrow platforms, so the person who took the video would like to remind everyone to mind their manners if they do visit and not get in the way of staff doing their jobs on the train line.

With the warm reception this video received, it looks like this train station may be about to get as much love as the one in Hokkaido that stayed open for a single schoolgirl until the day she graduated. That heartwarming train story is firmly etched in our hearts forever.

Source, images: YouTube/はまやん 
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